The End of another Era

[bingster]

Get it while you can!  Today (the 19th) is the last day for the official phone company weather forecast in Washington, DC.  202 WEather 6-1212 has been giving Washingtonians the local weather since 1939 (when it was WEather 1212), and it, along with the time service, was supposed to end earlier this year.  The time service went away as announced, but for some mysterious reason, the weather service continued.  Until now, that is.

RIP WE6-1212 

[rtp129495]

Yea I remeber when Jane Barbes machine was shut off in San Diego county. Discontinued by AT&T shortly after they took over SBC(again) LOL. Anyway it was 853-xxxx. You could dial any numbers as the last 4 digits 853-0000 to 853-9999 and it went to Jane Barbes time service annoncement. It's sad as Jane has such a nice voice to hear. It was taken away in 2009 here. Along with the last of the ESS switchs in the 2000 era also. All digital quiet phone sounds in San Diego now

Now its all modern, no memories of the old phone network anymore!!! That makes me really sad! The memories of my youth!!!

Heres to jane!!!
"Good Evening, at the tone Pacific Standard time will be 8 - 25 and 10 seconds Beep Click click", repeat every 10 seconds.

[Adam]

For those of you with access to the C*NET Collectors Telephone Network, I have recreated the Pacific Bell time service.  You can hear it at 1-853-1212.

My asterisk system also provides the C*NET weather service at the classic Pacific Bell weather number of 1-936-1212. (Dial your zip code at any time to hear your local forecast.)

If you don't have access to the C*NET, email me privately for a number you can use to hear these services from the PSTN.

For more information on C*NET, visit http://www.ckts.info

-Adam
Los Angeles Telephone
http://www.losangelestelephone.com/

[rtp129495]

Does it use the jane Barbe recordings? im so glad to hear 853-1212 is still like that somewhere. I do not have Cnet but would be curious how to setup/connect/use it!!!

[jsowers]

Bingster, I'm sorry to hear about another telephone tradition biting the dust.

Jane is still giving the time and temp at my local telco. Many years ago she recorded the advertising that preceded the time and temp, and I could tell she was getting older in the last few ads before she retired. Then a succession of men and women recorded the ads, and now it has no ad, just "Windstream Time" delivered in a low breathy female voice.

But Jane is still there doing the time and temp. Dial 336-CHestnut 3-2351 if you want to hear it. If someone can tell it's not Jane Barbe, then I'll stand corrected. We're about a five-hour drive away from Audichron in Atlanta, so I had always assumed they provided the equipment.

I made a recording of it in 2006, before the last change. It's attached as a .wav file.

[GG]

Back in the naughty phone phreak days, we used to make test calls to a certain public health service recording in London England. 

Yes, the end of the time recording in California was a sad occasion.  I had previously used that number as a test number and also for synchronizing PBX clocks.  As for weather, none other than Presidential candidate Rick Santorum has been supporting the privatization of the National Weather Service, which would effectively spell the end of all free public weather reporting, replaced by subscriber-paid weather services.  Something about that strikes me as un-American, but I'll leave that topic there for now. 

Good to see the time recording has been resurrected on C*NET.  Someone could probably resurrect it as a regular phone number and have it paid for with advertising.  "Berkeley Ace Hardware on University Avenue is happy to sponsor this service: at the tone, Pacific Standard Time will be..."   And as it turns out, Panasonic voicemail systems have separate .WAV files for all the necessary numbers and AM and PM and so on, that can be copied into a digital announcer.  They have "East Coast English," "West Coast / Canadian English," and "UK English," so in theory one could run a time recording for all three and have the correct accents.   Hmm...

[Adam]

My time service is not Jane Barbe, it's the Asterisk lady, I don't know who that it is.  But it's reminiscent of the original service.

[jsowers]

Adam, could it be Allison Smith? Here is her site and I love the picture of her with a 302, an AE80 and a 500 set. Click on the demos and you can hear her voice. Definitely not Jane Barbe.

http://www.theivrvoice.com/

[Adam]

Adam, could it be Allison Smith?

Hm.  Don't know.  Some of what my system uses is computer generated but it sounds just like the Asterisk voice which is obviously a real person.  You can check out my 1-853-1212 time service and decide for yourself...

[Wallphone]

FWIW, Pat Fleet was the "Time" lady after Jane Barbe. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Fleet > Check out the "External Links" towards the bottom of the page.
Doug Pav

[GG]

Allison Smith: checking out her demo recording, it's clear she's incredibly talented in terms of having an expressive voice for a wide range of moods.  Though, stylistically, I think sometimes she comes across a little too familiar or informal for certain business applications.  Along the lines of "Hi there!  After we finish taking care of business, how'd you like to go get some coffee or maybe a nice big ice cream sundae?"

The item at the end of her demo where she says "If you're hearing this recording, you're stuck in our crappy queueing system..." or something along those lines:  Holy cow would I like to sneak that recording into a few PBXs I know of!  But of course one doesn't do such things nowadays, lest one get a visit from some very serious guys bearing warrants signed by a judge. 

[rp2813]

@ rtp129495:  It wasn't AT&T that took over SBC, it was SBC taking over AT&T and assuming their identity. 

Just making sure you're annoyed with the right corporation, which is SBC masquerading as a company that had more integrity in its proverbial baby finger than does all of SBC.

[rtp129495]

rp2813,

     So after a divesture, black monday, bush family legacy, and finally a pending economic collapse to take down the best phone company there ever was? Only to be bought by a part that was broken off? that's really sad. so nothing is really left!

     I hope someday phone companies will return to integrity instead of relying on new products to come out every two years to fuel the feast or famine economy. I do miss the better days! I had the unfortunate or fortunate view depending how you look at it. I got to see the original AT&T as a kid then everything changed by the time I was an adult. i've seen both sides before the ME generation and now after. The original idea of generation X was to change the world for the better. i dont know what to say about it now. I feel i'm an outsider to that idea in someways. I hope the latter part of my life sees America bring back innovation and pride. I do miss quality products! Not to mention everything is imported now.

[Wallphone]

The Rape of Ma Bell is a good book on the subject and can be found online here -
< http://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/rapeofmabell.htm > My opinion is that the cell phone industry would still be living in a cave if we had to rely on only Ma Bell to develop it. According to the book cell phone technology was invented by Bell Labs and then they sat on it for 15 years because they didn't see a future in it. Reference - "The Damage Report " starting on page 115. I also read either in this book or another one that the Cell Phone Technology was just a "throw in" in the final splitting of the company. Long Distance was where the money was at.
Doug Pav

[GG]

I would have been happy to let Bell Labs sit on cellphones for another 15 years until they could find a way to make them sound at least as good as 1928 handsets.

Really!  Remember those Sprint long distance ads with the "pin drop" theme?  Sound quality so good you can hear a pin drop?  Now it's "sound quality so bad you have to ask people to repeat themselves three times." 

Bell Labs also wrote *the* *very* *first* report on climate change, in the 1950s, and pegged it to fossil fuels even back then.  Which also was part of their motivation for developing photovoltaics (the other part being, need for a power supply in remote areas not served by grid power).   And if people had listened, by today we'd have a combined nuclear/solar/wind grid, and the Southeast wouldn't be getting clobbered by violent storms. 

Bell Labs was one of the crown jewels of science & technology in the world, and we scattered it to the four winds for the sake of phones shaped like ducks that quack when they ring.  And today we're still fighting political battles to teach real science in high schools, including evolution. 

So go back and watch any Bell videos from the mid 20th century, and any of those corporate PR films from the WW2 era to about the early 1970s.  That was the peak of American industrial strength, when it was really true that what was good for America and what was good for General Motors were usually the same or at least similar enough that there was common ground. 

Good union jobs at family-sustaining wages, middle-class prosperity for anyone with a high-school diploma and a reasonable work ethic, medical coverage and pension plan at work, lifetime employment, two weeks' paid vacation every year, having the house paid off before the kids left for the military or college, and sending the kids to college on savings rather than debt.  The only things from that era that we can surely do without are the racism and other forms of prejudice that existed in those days. 

And then listen to the current antics in Congress.  And make sure your voter registration is up to date.